Can anybody advise me please? We are going to Chester in a couple of weeks and I wondered, what's the chance of getting my 2.8m SIB with outboard engine on the river? I've got a 6hp engine but have access to a 4hp also.

Above weir is a speed limit where you officially need a licence (if you get caught, but the I haven't seen the boat in the last 18 years!) no radio or lights needed, rowing boats everywhere, very few motors other than hired tinnies from the groves. Best place to launch, sandy lane car park and jetty by the dinghy sailing club.

Below the weir is tidal and leads to the Irish sea, though it is past the sewage works, scrap yards and then canalised for 5-8 mile down to parkgate marshes and sandbanks, ie don't bother.

From the weir are the groves, dee bridge, suspension bridge, two water side pubs, the head upriver past the meadows to sandy lane and the dinghy sailing club, then the red house pub, nice! After that is just meadows and fields up through the grosvenor estate to iron bridge about 5 mile upriver.

Thanks for the advice.
Went to Chester and launched at Sandy Lane, as advised. The water is a bit shallow at the launching ramps but was just about OK. I believe the river is low at the moment though. We managed about 5 miles up the river and it was a great day out, a lot of rowing boats about though.
The permit cost £20 for the day (£37 weekly) and the river patrol did pass us on the other side of the river, but did not trouble us.

The cost of hiring one of the motor boats from near the weir is £10 for 15 minutes.....so I'm glad we took our own boat.

There's a 6mph speed limit of course, and there are fishermen along the bank, plus the rowing teams, so about 4mph seemed OK as 6mph produced quite a wash.